Rail Fatalities and Serious Injuries
About the measures
Safety on the roadways is MnDOT’s priority. Measuring rail fatalities and serious injuries helps MnDOT plan for safer rail conditions. This measure tracks the number of fatalities or serious injuries from crashes at highway-grade rail crossings. Serious injuries are classified by first responders at the scene of the crash.
Recent trends
In 2022, two people were killed and seven people were injured at highway-rail grade crossings. The number of fatalities has varied over the past five years with 2022 having the lowest total fatalities and 2018 having the highest with six.
Where we want to go
MnDOT seeks to eliminate rail fatalities and serious injuries through efforts like Minnesota’s Highway Grade Crossing Safety Improvement Program, which provides funding for the installation of highway-rail grade crossing signal systems, interconnection of highway-rail grade crossing signals with roadway traffic signals, and replacement of outdated warning devices. Other activities include installing warning devices, crossing consolidations, crossing closures, and sign changes. All these investments in safety improvements are efforts to prevent train-motor vehicle collisions at crossings, which can cause fatalities, injuries and derailments.